Queen joyous at Royal Ascot win

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Queen Elizabeth celebrates 60 year reign

The Crown Estate is owned by the queen as monarch but is not her private property, meaning she has no direct control over it. The total portfolio is now valued at 8.1 billion pounds (nearly $12.4 billion).

The estate's revenue comes from everything from chic central London stores to offshore wind farms and rural housing developments.

Even U.S. retailer J. Crew helped swell its profits in the last year -- it's one of a number of international brands to open a new store on Regent Street, in the heart of London. Apple, Banana Republic and Anthropologie are three more of the big American firms to find a home on the Crown Estate-owned street.

As for energy production, about 300 new offshore wind turbines came on line over the year.

The estate manages almost all of Britain's coastal waters and some of its finest parkland, including Windsor Great Park, by Windsor Castle.

It is also one of the country's largest rural landowners, holding about 356,000 acres of agricultural land and forests, together with mineral resources, homes and commercial property.

In the past year, it put 250,000 pounds into creating new mountain bike trails at the Glenlivet estate in Scotland and invested 1 million pounds to support coastal communities and care of the marine environment.

According to its website, the estate's vision "is to be the UK's most respected property business because of the way in which we manage this portfolio of assets on behalf of the nation."

Overspending

The queen's grant for 2012-2013 totaled 31 million pounds, jumping to just over 36 million pounds for the current financial year.

She spent 2.3 million pounds more than the allotted grant last year -- when she was "exceptionally busy" with travel and events to mark the diamond jubilee -- the annual report said. The extra cost was met from a reserve fund.

The queen had 288 public engagements in the year to March 31, 2013, and her husband, Prince Philip, had 275, the report said. The queen didn't travel abroad in the last financial year, but other members of the royal family, including Princes William and Harry, undertook 30 foreign engagements on her behalf.

Spending last year on royal properties included 700,000 pounds (just over $1 million) so far on the refurbishment of an apartment at Kensington Palace for William and his wife, Catherine, who are expecting their first child in July.

Work on the apartment, which was built to the designs of Sir Christopher Wren, architect of London's landmark St. Paul's Cathedral, is due to be completed this fall.

The "Sovereign Grant" came into effect in April of last year, after the passage of new legislation that consolidated public funding for the monarch's official duties and royal palaces in return for the profits from the Crown Estate.

The queen has her own private estate, which includes Balmoral, in Scotland, and Sandringham, her country retreat in Norfolk.

The Crown Estate's record profits will be welcome news for the Treasury, as the government struggles to bring the nation's debt and spending under control.

Chancellor of the Exchequer George Osborne announced more cuts to public spending Wednesday in his 2013 Spending Review.